Comparison of psychological well-being, cognitive impairment, physical activity and coping styles in the elderly with and without sleep disorders

Sleep affects physical and mental health, and major changes occur in the pattern and structure of sleep with increasing age. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare psychological well-being, cognitive impairment, physical activity and coping styles in the elderly with and without sleep disorders.

This causal comparative study was performed on 40 elderly men and women in Zanjan in 2020. Data were collected using Ryff Psychological Welfare Questionnaire, Endler and Parker Coping Styles Scale, CHAMPS Physical Activity Questionnaire, Cognitive Impairment Scale and Petersburg Sleep Quality Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS through multivariate analysis of variance.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the elderly with and without sleep disorders in cognitive impairment components including inadvertent mistakes (F=11.403), memory (F=12.596) and distraction (F=6.335) problems, problem-oriented (F=7.055), emotion-oriented (F=12.788) and avoidant (F=5.272) coping styles, high physical activity variables (F=9.929) and moderate physical activity (F=4.433) (P˂0.05). Moreover, the results indicated that 44% of the variance related to the difference between the two groups was due to dependent variables.

Due to cognitive impairments and negative coping styles of the elderly with sleep disorders, it is recommended that some interventions should be established in nursing homes and psychological service centers to increase the elderly’s cognitive ability and teach coping skills to them.